A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

Sitting around a small campfire while enjoying some stew, I was translating everything Kramps was telling me to Vifi, keeping her informed just as Kramps wanted. Considering what he just told me, allowing her to hear about her ancestors—the archdemons—seemed warranted to me, and even if it wasn’t interesting to Vifi, I thought she should know about it, at least.

She hadn’t chosen her Job evolution yet, so she might be antsy about choosing one soon.

“That’s how it already works,” I said.

While it was possible for artisans and day workers to gain experience without killing anything through Quests—usually work-related requests, in this case—the amount they could get from them was enough to maybe bring them up to level 15 at a convenient pace. The point was that it was hard for the average person to become strong.

After all, the whole leveling and Job systems were balanced around the fact you could only become stronger if you fought and killed others. Being an adventurer, soldier, or any combat profession was the way to go.

Kramps continued.

Considering Grimnir’s blessed benefits were mostly focused on his smithing and runesmithing abilities, I could see that being one of the reasons.

“Ha, the first otherworldly ritual of its kind, and the gods are panicking to find a way to combat it? In a way, I can’t help but feel proud of that. Hard conditions to fulfill, so it had to result in that much. You need a proper demonic connection to the Edjurl gods, after all,” Vifi explained. “Two have been enacted, as you know. The first was to summon those brats—accidentally also Saori—by sacrificing the life of our previous prince of lust. The second used the prince of envy’s life. Wanna guess the requirement?”

“Considering you only listed those two, I presume you need a prince of sin for it?”

“Almost correct. You need pure demon blood. Do you remember the black-liquid potions my fellow soldiers and a few Edjurian sympathizers ingested to change their figures? The former gaining more strength with a skin change, while the latter usefully morphs into more grotesque forms? That’s the means the princes of sin use to make their blood as pure as possible for the rituals,” she said. “Only works with a prince of sin, though, and you need an unholy amount of mana to even begin the ritual! You need the prince’s heir to be ready to fully inherit their prince’s blood as well, so Bole’Taria doesn’t just lose one of their major fighters for years to concoct new blood for the process.”

“… I’m starting to get really curious about this. Do you mind bringing me up to speed with this?” I asked. With Vifi fully on our side, I believed I was allowed to ask this now.

And I was right.

“Sure. Princes of sins are created by injected pure demon blood into the vessel, which allows them to not only use their demonic powers at a higher degree of efficiency, but also allows them to access the archdemon’s sin abilities. Satan and Satanael for wrath demonkin, as a reminder.” Vifi then pointed at her chest before pulling her gambeson down a bit to show a small scar. “However, pure demon blood is deadly for your body, unless you train to accept it. Through the creation of sin crystals, sin heirs are created by putting one of them into our bodies and that allows us to adapt to the demon blood over time; but, as I said, that requires a lot of time. You need the sin heir to be ready, otherwise the process would fail without a doubt.”

“And you pried yours out to pay Ghorush to save your apprentice, right.”

She nodded. “The first, and only, batch of pure demon blood was made 600 years ago, and none have been synthesized ever since. I don’t know how long it would take, but with the prince of envy’s dramatic self-offering, Bole’Taria has effectively lost their prince of envy until Lord Sloth can create more blood. That means, they must extract the blood from the remains of Master Envy.”

“By ‘Master Envy’ you mean the archdemon of envy,” I replied, which she confirmed, prompting me to tilt my head. “Then … how did they create princes of lust? Klea’s body was beaten up by Belzac until Aurena destroyed it all when she was imprisoned.”

“… She fucked around. A lot,” Vifi stated with the most deadpan expression ever, causing me to gasp awkwardly. “Okay, maybe a bit too dramatic, but it isn’t hard to think how it happened. The sin of lust’s powers involve creating blood and flesh through demonic energy. Save up some of the bits of flesh from whenever Mistress Klea was fighting people and your descendants might be able to scavenge enough for some blood. The important part is that the pure blood was only made once for each sin. You just need enough and to ensure that your princes of sins don’t just randomly die without choosing an heir. Easy, right?”

Kramps praised, even sending me an image of him clapping. I knew he was trying to congratulate me for my party’s achievement, but seeing that giant black dragon slow clap was a surreal sight. Almost like he was sarcastic … although, he wasn’t.

This is what my promise to Goddess Aurena was supposed to address, to prepare for the next demon war.>

“… You certainly did a good job on that front, Grandpapa,” I said, grimacing as I remembered everything I’ve encountered on Kargryx in the one month I’ve been here. In the last month alone!

Vifi, surprisingly, found the irony funny and burst in laughter, spilling some of her stew on the ground as her lightning horns appeared on her head. “I really want you to say that again, just to mess with your grandfather in the sky. The big, bad tyrant really can’t get mad at his little granddaughter with how you’re just throwing those sarcastic remarks around! Ahahahaha!”

As Vifi said, Kramps went completely silent. With the way she was messing with him, I honestly thought I had Neill or Asaka around with me. Hmm, this did make me wonder if Vifi was more used to dry humor or something, as hearing her ecstatic about a snarky remark felt a bit unusual for her.

I think I know how to break the stoicness of another party member, hiehie. Your horns are exposing you.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

After Vifi finished her belly laugh, Kramps started speaking again,

“About time.”

I nodded, keeping quiet for now. His melancholic voice entering my head felt somber, sounding like he was actually making an effort to reflect on everything that happened after he became a god. That chest-tightening, fury-filled voice of his when he explained why he summoned me to this world had disappeared, making it easier for me to view him as that old man agonizing over his past mistakes.

I nodded. “What did you speak to him about?”

“If you were to do this to my kid, then, yes, I would despise you to the end of times. Your relationship with both of them is terrible, and it was likely both would have rejected it, but you owed my mother and father the courtesy to ask them if they are willing to offer their unborn child as a vessel for my soul. Hear how fucked up that sounds? Yeah.” I groaned, feeling a bit disgusted at what I just said. “However, you did it and now you have to live with that mistake. My father despises me because of you, yet my mother is willing to look past it for my sake. I want to fix this and I need your help with this.”

he said.

I couldn’t disagree. With how much destruction Mom managed to wrought in Elyonda, Aureolis, and Inferno Nest, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mom would be able to wipe out the empire or Bole’Taria all by herself. That would be a big if, though, as Mom would never agree to it unless I died … and I really didn’t want to die just for something like this.

The Prince of Pride, for example.

will experience the results. At least, that is the intention.>

“Then, what is this [Battle Frenzy Mastery Lv. 1] supposed to be?” I asked as I inspected this new Job skill I just got from evolving [Tyrant Hatchling].

Battle Frenzy Mastery: A Job skill only acquirable for true dragonkin with a high purity of the God of Dragon and Oath, Kargryxmor’s, blood. Raises mental resistance while using [Battle Frenzy] at all stages. Raises stat increase by [Battle Frenzy Mastery Lv. X]*2, adding itself to the base stat increase of [Battle Frenzy (X stage)]

[Crimson Inferno Tyrant] prestige points: 5

• Benefit Slot increase
• Job Skill: [Draconic Skill: Proficiency Lv. 1] [Spark Fire Dragon Lv. 1] [Tyrant of the Skies Lv. 1] [Tyrant’s Successor Lv. 1]
• Growth Boosts: [Health] [Mana] [Stamina]

Job: Crimson Inferno Tyrant

Benefit Slots: [Job Crossover]

Level: 0/50

Prestige Level: 0

Right now, as [Battle Frenzy Mastery] was a Job skill, I didn’t have it active since I needed to buy another benefit slot. It wasn’t a problem, of course, but having to get 50 levels for the Job to get another prestige point was pretty steep, especially since I had to buy a benefit slot per new skill. Leveling things up was a bit simpler.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Now that I think about it, I haven’t had a big review session for my Jobs in months—well, over a year now, technically. That thought alone was enough for Hikari to update me on everything as I listened to Kramps.

Unique Job: [Tyrant Diva] Evolution Points: 28/50

Development Job:[Star Idol][Lightbearer][Crimson Inferno Tyrant]

Unlocked Jobs:[Star Idol] [Wildfire] [Lightbearer] [Dragoon] [Crimson Inferno Tyrant]

Evolution Bonuses: [Tyrant’s Voice] [True Draconic Aura] [Saint’s Aura]

Job: Star Idol

Benefit Slots: [Musical Crescendo] [Bardic Cadenza] [Heavenly Performance Act 1] [Musical Renaissance Diva Lv. 1] [Acoustic Power Lv. 4]

Level: 43/55

Prestige Level: 14

Job: Wildfire

Benefit Slots: [Magic Skills: Proficiency Lv. 10] [Fire Element Lv. 2] [Arcane Skills: Proficiency Lv. 1]

Level: 0/25

Prestige Level: 0

Job: Lightbearer

Benefit Slots: [Empty Slot]

Level: 25/50

Prestige Level: 11

Nothing really happened to [Star Idol] since my last Job review session aside from it having gained some good amount of levels to spend on stuff. Aside from [Crimson Inferno Tyrant], the biggest other addition was [Fire Mage] evolving into [Wildfire] and creating a new development Job in [Lightbearer].

Interestingly enough, [Lightbearer] didn’t inherit any of the Job skills from its predecessor, but maintained a similar base level cap as [Wildfire]. It was a bit annoying to “start anew” with the Job, but it wasn’t like it was an issue in the grand scheme of things. The point of Development Jobs was that each level into them would change your Unique Job’s evolution choices.

I was planning on replacing [Lightbearer] with [Wildfire] eventually so my Job evolution could focus more on my holy flames and solar power skills. [Star Idol] and [Crimson Inferno Tyrant], though, were mainstays to me, as the Job skills could only be active while the Development Job was equipped to the Unique Job. Sadly, it only had three slots and I had no way to increase them.

[Job Crossover] from the latter was too important since I could level my Jobs in my dragon form, and I wouldn’t give up on my music related skills under any circumstance. They were broken. Period.

While putting in some thoughts on what to acquire after my discussion with Kramps was over, the big dragon continued his explanation.

‘That point,’ uuurgh. Yeah, having to reach the final training stage will take a while.

“… So the gods want you to fight demons,” Vifi suddenly stated, interrupting my thoughts. When I turned around, she was scratching her chin, looking at the ceiling as she continued. “The archdemons will listen to the Edjurl gods, while the seraphims will be sent by the Origin Gods. Question then, isn’t that completely redundant, though? Since the Origin Gods can’t directly interfere with Bole’Taria since we’re Peolyncians, but the demons invading our world aren’t. Can’t they just zap them?”

As I was listening to her, Kramps could hear everything and was conveying his answer to her through me.

Vifi’s eyes squinted. “… From the sound of it, demonkin are allowed access to the unique Job System. Why?”

“Understandable,” Vifi replied before finishing her stew. After letting out a big sigh and thanking me for the food, she turned her eyes back to me. “So, the idea here is that eliminating the problematic factors in Bole’Taria will solve everything.”

“Then that is the perfect way to villainize a portion of the extremist demonkin, and turn those following God Marsven onto ‘Peolyncia’s side.’ That might be the angle we need, Donut.” Vifi’s eyes brightened up. “If you want to make peace through your idol ways, this is the reason we needed to bring the followers of Aurena and the followers of Marsven together. A new enemy that neither side can allow to live.”

While I was impressed at the conclusion of this, Vifi’s mouth curved into a large crescent grin, showing off her sharp fangs as she gleefully chuckled. “How could we not have seen this? Haha, Lord Envy summoning that god and scarring the world might have even more ripple effects than we could have thought. As long as we can get rid of the racial tensions between humans and demonkin, we can use this as the reason to bring them together. Still, it won’t be easy, that’s for sure.”

“… Yet, you’re still laughing like you’re enjoying this,” I said, feeling a bit creeped out.

“’Cause this is what a Warbringer is supposed to do, Hestia! I was one of Lord Wrath’s heirs, his third-in-command, and that meant I’ve learned how to conduct war. I might not have been the best at the strategic parts, nor do I have the experience compared to my siblings, but any military officer would cheer with all this juicy information to process!” Vifi declared with an even more devilish smile. “Even the difficulty to act on this information will make the payoff feel even better! Think about it, we have to stop three wars—No, four wars—for all of this to work out. The dragon civil war, the impending war between the Shakaie-Narn Alliance and Folschreck, Carminiate against Folschreck, and then Folschreck and Bole’Taria. No biggie, right?”

“… A headache, for sure.”

“Not if you actually make use of that Seraphim Project thing. The politics will be easy compared to having to fight against all the princes of sin, I tell you! I’m just telling you this right now, I’m not even sure if I can beat my fellow Warbringer, especially if they get unique Jobs in two years’ time. I don’t have mine yet, but you got your head start. Sadly, you are stuck here on this continent and even after you make it back to Altrust, you will still have to deal with other stuff before we can launch a proper attack on Bole’Taria.”

“… Like I said, a headache,”—I'm scratching at my hair, feeling exhausted from all this information—“Okay, I get it. The Seraphim Project introduction of a new Job System is to facilitate and accelerate the growth of humanoids in preparation of a possible second demon war. That’s why this update will also benefit artisans and crafters a ton for that future. Then what? Say a demon war doesn’t happen, what’s the reason for the update then?”

Kramps huffed loudly.

The arrogance and confidence that statement exuded felt so like Kramps, unlike our more somber moment a moment ago.

Regardless of the main reason for the Seraphim Project, what this meant was that I should be aware that more benefits could be acquired to make my unique Job actually unique from others. Skills like [Battle Frenzy Mastery] would differentiate me from other blessed and people, and the various other skills I could acquire to customize my unique Job would make me special even when my siblings finally acquired their unique Jobs.

[Lightbearer] prestige points: 11

• Benefit Slot increase
• Job Skill: [Elemental Resistances: Proficiency Lv. 1] [Arcane Skills: Proficiency Lv. 1] [Magic Skills: Proficiency Lv. 1] [Light Element Lv. 1] [Sacred Equilibrium Lv. 1] [Demonsbane Lv. 1] [Darksbane Lv. 1]
• Growth Boosts: [Mana] [Intelligence] [Wisdom]

[Lightbearer] Prestige spent. [Light Element Lv. 1 [Sacred Healing Amp Lv. 1] [Demonsbane Lv. 1] [Darksbane Lv. 1] gained. 3 Prestige Points spent on Benefit Slots. 4 Prestige Points to [Sacred Equilibrium Lv. 1] -> [Sacred Equilibrium Lv. 5] gained

As the discussion wound down, Vifi and I went back to our meal and spent the remaining time left in the evening planning our Job expenditure. Starting with [Lightbearer], I bought three slots so I could equip four of the skills I wanted, which were exclusive to the Job.

Since [Elemental Resistances: Proficiency Lv. 1], [Arcane Skills: Proficiency Lv. 1], and [Magic Skills: Proficiency Lv. 1] were shared with [Wildfire], and I had already bought two of them on that Job, I ignored them on [Lightbearer]. A bit of min-maxing the points as I could simply switch to [Wildfire] whenever I wanted to level up my pure magic skills, while leaving [Lightbearer] as a more combat-proficient Job, due to [Sacred Equilibrium Lv. 1], [Demonsbane Lv. 1], and [Darksbane Lv. 1].

Sacred Equilibrium: This Job skill may be activated by spending mana to maintain it, with its overall mana cost reduced by the level of the skill. While active, reduce all holy-aligned attacks by 90% while increasing the potency of all healing sources by 10% * skill level. If the owner of this skill possess the [The Light] title, further amplify healing effects to allow sacred, or more potent, healing abilities to also slightly regenerate flesh as long as a healing spell is applied

Biggest prize of this Job was this one skill here as a pure healing modifier, especially since [Miraculous Grace] should be viable as it was “more potent” than even [Major Heal]. The 90% flat attack reduction was incredibly debilitating, but in exchange, it would grant me a 100% healing boost at level ten. Worthy trade-off, since the skill also applied to self-healing.

Yes, self-healing. On the dragon with one of the most potent ways to heal herself. This skill was a no-brainer, which was why I spent my last four points to increase it to level 5.

[Demonsbane] and [Darksbane] were easy enough to understand. They increased my damage done to demonic and dark-aligned enemies, respectively.

Now to my two other equipped Jobs, I didn’t spend anything on [Idol] since I needed to save ten points for the evolution of [Heavenly Performance Act 2]. [Crimson Inferno Tyrant]—and this was an important choice now that I had gained [Job Crossover]—had me befuddled about what to choose. While the skill hadn’t introduced any new skills to buy, it still offered the same two Neill had warned me about when I first showed her them.

Tyrant of the Skies: The embodiment of Kargryxmor’s legacy, constructed by the God of Dragons in accordance to his earlier years. A skill specialized in the solo battle prowess of the Kargryxmor spawn, increasing [Battle Frenzy] stat boost by 2% regardless of the stage. Increases 2% of all stats if the owner fights a monster of a higher rank or of the same rank but of a higher or similar level. These percentages increase by 2% per skill level. Will exclude [Tyrant’s Successor]

Tyrant’s Successor: The embodiment of Kargryxmor’s legacy, constructed by the God of Dragons in accordance with his rule as emperor. A skill specialized in leading others and ruling the land as an imperial royalty of Kargryx. While leading retainers or soldiers fully loyal to you, you increase their stats, experience, and proficiency gain by 1%. Increase stat gained by 5% through monster or Unique Job evolutions. Increases percentage by 1% per skill level. While battling any non-royal dragonkins, decrease their stats by 15%. Will exclude [Tyrant of the Skies]

The first skill was a straight up monstrous skill that probably stacked with [Battle Frenzy Mastery]’s own 20% stat increase during [Battle Frenzy] after it reached level 10. Essentially, with this skill, I would have a 60% stat increase as long as I fought somebody stronger, and this was applied with the base stat increase I would normally get from [Battle Frenzy].

However, the second skill was incredibly strong with how my [Hestia’s Retainer] I’ve spread to my friends and companions, including Neill herself. Not to mention, a 15% decrease in a dragon’s stat as long as they weren’t part of my family? What I would have given to have this when I was trapped in Inferno Nest, man …

Yet, it was also the skill Neill had vehemently warned me from getting, due to the political issues it would cause for the succession crisis. While Kahalameet and Wendriosa were smart and nice enough to forgive me for it, other dragons—like Maustoovaka—would only see [Tyrant’s Successor] as my first step into taking the crown.

Back then, when I talked about it with Neill, I wasn’t fully onboard with her reasoning, but after a month staying here, I couldn’t help but agree more. I could not agitate the fire dragons nor could I feed into the holy dragons’ ambition for me … Yet, the skill was so good!

That was the conundrum! Which was why I decided to play it safe and simply invest into two benefit slots to future-proof myself—one for [Battle Frenzy Mastery] and the other for when I wanted to make the choice—and leaving one point up. As such, I spent two points to increase my skill level.

[Crimson Inferno Tyrant] Prestige spent. 2 Prestige Points spent on Benefit Slots. 2 Prestige Points to [Battle Frenzy Mastery Lv. 1] -> [Battle Frenzy Mastery Lv. 3] gained

With that, I was done for the day, as Vifi had already gone to sleep after she finished her Job review earlier. With her asleep, I stayed up for my shift on watch until I could sleep and that was how we spent the evening, until I could finally ask her about her Job in the morning. I also asked Tasianna on an update through the subspace, but it looked like nothing had come.

“Lord Siegragxus mentioned that he would pick you up once word came for your delivery. Lord Karydrinos has been quite impatient, even threatening to personally go into Inferno Nest to forcibly grab the stones for you, aha. Lord Alextraxus had a terrible time yesterday, my lady,” Tasianna reported. “Also, Lord Siegragxus had told me to tell you that you are allowed to scout the glaciers, but to not enter them. The dragons training there haven’t been contacted in years, so it is likely some of them do not know that you are the empress’s daughter.”

“Since I’m a fire dragon, right. They wouldn’t believe me before they try to kill me.” I nodded before Vifi and I continued our travels.

It took us two more days until we finally made it. The glacial north where Tasianna and I would seek a method to become one with the sheer cold of Frozen Nest.

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Where do the angels fly, indeed.

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